This Is How He Loses Her
by AliceRulesMyWorld
Summary: In the end, neither of the men who loved her really understood how to keep her.


Hermione could hear muffled voices coming from her and her long-term boyfriend's apartment. They must be loud, too, because she hears it over the noise of the shop. It IS her birthday. Maybe he'd gotten her a TV. She trounces in excitedly. "Fred!"

Fred, she finds, is in the kitchen, snogging some random girl, the both of them shirtless, andthe various voices are the occasional moans.

At her voice he pulls back and looks up and Hermione half-hopes—really hopes—one might almost say she _prays_, that an ear would be missing and she would simply feel foolish. Not so.

"Hermione!" He shouts in return as she runs down the steps, ignoring the door entirely. He follows. "Hermione, please!"

He cares nothing about the people passing by, staring at him for being shirtless.

"Sod off, Fred!" She yells through the snow. "No, you know what, that's too easy."

He cuts his eyes to her in confusion.

"How long?" She stalked up to him, her voice dangerous. "How many times have you fucked her in OUR bed? How many girls have you fucked in our bed, period?"

"Hermione, please…"

"No." She cut him off. "No. I hate you." She whispers before turning away and disappearing into the crowd.

So, this is how he loses her.

She finds herself at Fortescue's and she's in the middle of an entire quart to herself when Malfoy walks in. Before, the last thing she'd have wanted would be to look mildly sad in Malfoy's vicinity. Now they are actually friends. "Hey, Granger." He smiled at her.

"Hey Draco," she replies, "How's Astoria?" She knows they've just started dating but he has always had a thing for the younger Greengrass.

"We didn't see eye to eye much. How's Weasley doing?"

She lost it, her sobs becoming almost painful to hear. "I'm sorry!" He pales. "I never said that! I take it back! Umm…" In the end he simply takes her into his arms and rocks her like a child until the sobs quiet. Until she has spent all of her tears and whispers only, "He was practically shagging her."

To his surprise, he feels a rush of anger sweep over him, protectiveness almost.

"Where should I take you?" He whispers.

"I need to see Harry. Number twelve Grimmauld place. I'll send him a Patronus that I'm coming." He apparated her there and took her inside.

To Malfoy, this is awkward. He knows Harry only because they are both aurors. They are not yet friends, but they're making an effort. They aren't to this point yet, though, but it is Hermione who's important. "Potter? I've brought Hermione…"

"Thanks, Draco." He said, taking Hermione and hugging her tightly.

"Should I kill him?" He asks, serious.

"Wait for me," Harry answers, just as seriously.

Her three years with Draco wae amazing and she doesn't even hesitate to say yes when he proposes But Molly, sweet caring Molly, wants for Draco to be part of the family since he's marrying Hermione and, oh he absolutely must come to dinner.

She doesn't think to mention that Fred will be present.

The tension between a particular Weasley and this certain Malfoy is exceptionally high.

"We cooked your favorite." Fred starts, as if trying to show off his Hermione knowledge.

"I hung your coat up, sweetheart." Draco interrupted.

"Did you…"

"Flip up the collar and button the top three buttons so it doesn't wrinkle?" He dropped a kiss to her lips, looking pointedly at Fred at the close of the kiss.

Ginny wanted to talk to Hermione privately and next thing she hears a brawl and Harry's trying to pull Draco off of Fred or maybe Fred off of Draco and they're shouting and both are laying claim to her and she can't TAKE it. She doesn't belong to anybody except herself.

"She's MINE!" Draco yells

"I'm not a fucking possession," she screams.

This is how he loses her.

And both Fred and Draco tear off after her, the former determined not to lose her again, the latter refusing to be left alone, the way he was before they found each other and they're screaming after her, both of them, and then she's in the moonlight and she apparates away and she's gone.


End file.
